The tyranist's thoughts
In my long experience with horror, I rarely feel that horror dates itself. Things may not be frightening for the same reasons as they once were, but if decently done, horror will always find a way to scare. Murder by Television manages to so completely date itself that there is little horror left for a modern audience and it even makes me question whether viewers in the '30s would have found it that frightening. It walks the thin line between mystery and horror in an age when horror was defined by monsters and not by psychopaths.
So there's this new-fangled thing called television and the science breakthroughs are coming on an almost daily pace. One man has even finally figured out how to broadcast to wide regions of the world without so many relay stations. During the first test broadcast with his new technology, the man mysteriously dies on camera with no one else around.
I found the plot to be pretty confused and some of the action hard to follow, but, for my money, Bela Lugosi is definitely the star of the show. Even with weak dialogue he manages to come across as sinister but urbane, furtive but dignified. There isn't much else to say. I can see how this might be translated for a modern audience, but really if you want a movie with a similar theme that is far, far better check out Murder by Phone.